Exposure Time
by BellatrixLestrangey
Summary: Goretober Day 13: Transformation. Azula notices that her appearance is altering ever so slightly, no one else seems to notice. She begins to question her sanity.


**Note: The dates are super important. You may get lost towards the end if you skip them.**

* * *

**Friday, November 12th. 2:23 AM: **

She brings her fingers to the her cheeks and trails them gently to her lips. There is something wrong. Something off but she can't place it.

**Friday, November 12th. 2:33 AM: **

What is it?

**Friday, November 12th. 2:34: AM:**

What is it?

**Friday, November 12th. 2:35 AM:**

What is it?

**Friday, November 12th. 2:40 AM: **

It is her eyes.

**Friday, November 12th. 4:00 AM:**

Azula is still awake she can't stop thinking about her eyes. Why are her pupils so dilated. Why are they a shade darker?

She stands and paces about the room. Her fingers dig at her hair line. Perhaps she is only imagining it. Yes, she decides, she is just tired.

**Saturday, November 13th. 7:00 AM: **

She hits the alarm and hates herself for doing so.

But she is drained.

**Saturday, November 13th. 11:05 AM:**

She is still angry over her late start but at least she isn't exhausted through and through. She wanders into the bathroom and finds her toothbrush. She hesitates before looking up and into the mirror. Her eyes are still darker. Her pupils are still too wide.

She thinks that her eyes might be darker still.

She tries to focus only on her teeth and brushing them. But her lips...they seem thinner. She intensifies her focus on her teeth, but they seem sharper. With shaky hands she sets the toothbrush down and backs away from the mirror, deciding to comb her hair without it.

**Saturday, November 13th. 1:37 PM: **

Everything is normal. She has lunch and converses with Mai and TyLee. TyLee tells her that she is glad to have Azula home and that she is happier still to know that the princess is recovering. Azula questions if she really is recovering and takes solace in the sudden realization that she is probably just imagining things.

**Saturday, November 13th. 3:00 PM:**

She attends a council meeting with Zuko. By now it is almost out of her mind, what she had observed in the mirror. She advises her brother as to how to handle finances and war reparations. He says that it's to be working with her as opposed to against her. She feels comforted. Like things are finally normalizing and stabilizing in her life.

**Saturday, November 13th. 7:04 PM:**

She brushes her teeth again, ignoring the apparent points that they come to. Ignoring that her eyes are almost brown instead of gold.

Ignoring that her hair is coarser and dustier looking.

**Sunday, November 14th. 2:20 AM:**

Her head hurts so much. She squeezes her eyes shut and tries to ignore this too.

**Sunday, November 14th. 2:22 AM: **

Her nose is bleeding.

She nervously bites her cheek.

Now her cheek is bleeding.

**Sunday, November 14th. 7:00 AM: **

Azula begins her morning routine again. She doesn't like brushing her teeth anymore. They are jagged and pointed, behind lips that are so thin that they practically aren't there. Her irises and pupils are nearly one in the same in color. She shudders, there is something about that, that she doesn't like.

Her hair is getting lighter. And her nose, she could swear that it is more pointed.

What is happening to her?

**Sunday, November 14th. 8:08 AM:**

She asks TyLee, over a plate of eggs, if she thinks that she looks different.

TyLee says no, she hasn't noticed anything.

**Sunday, November 14th. 8:10 AM:**

She doesn't wait for Mai to sit down to ask her the same question.

Mai laughs and says, "yeah, you're not wearing your crown."

Normally Azula would have rolled her eyes and laughed along but she is in no mood for sarcasm.

**Sunday November 14th. 9:00 AM: **

It is a no from Zuko as well.

**Sunday November 14th. 10:13 PM: **

No one seems to see the changes that she does.

She tries to ignore them. But she can't; not now that her pupils and irises are the exact same color.

Azula shudders at the depth of the darkness within them.

**Sunday, November 14th. 2:19 AM: **

Her eyes burn and sting. She feels a warm stream spilling from them. She brings her index and middle fingers to it. She feels the liquid. She can't bring herself to look.

**Monday, November 15th. 7:00 AM: **

She thinks of skipping her teeth brushing. But her knack for hygiene is stronger. She regrets it.

There are deep red tracks running down and clotting on her cheeks. She splashes them with warm water and rubs the crimson away.

With that task out of the way she looks into the mirror.

She jolts back.

Her eyes are much wider, almost uncannily big. The sclera has gone as black as the rest of her eyes.

Her hands tremble uncontrollably. It isn't human.

**Monday, November 15th. 7:15 AM: **

She strips out of her pajamas robes and flinches at the proportions of her body. Her arms seem too long. Her figure some lankier.

She shivers.

It is just a hallucination she reminds herself, a very vivid one. If it isn't then someone would have said something.

Someone would have noticed.

**Monday, November 15th. 8:00 AM: **

Azula finds it hard to engage in breakfast conversation. She mostly just listens. When Mai gets up to change into her day clothes she finally speaks. "TyLee, are you sure that there isn't something different about me?"

TyLee tilts her head, "you're a lot nicer now." She says it with a smile and on any other day, that would have lifted Azula's mood.

Today she looks almost desperately at TyLee, "No. No. Is there something different about how I look?"

The concern on her face is unmistakable. "No, Azula, you look one-hundred percent like you."

**Monday, November 15th. 8:19 AM:**

She overhears TyLee telling Zuko to keep an eye on her.

To make sure that she doesn't hurt herself again.

Azula chokes back tears, she doesn't want to lose it again.

**Monday, November 15th. 12:42 PM: **

But another glance in the mirror tells her that she is. She is taller and skinnier in a way most grotesque. Her arms are longer still.

She can't even look at her eyes, they have an almost cosmic vastness that disturbs her profoundly.

**Tuesday, November 16th. 12:30 PM:**

She doesn't understand. It is madness. Why don't they notice? Why doesn't anyone notice?

**Wednesday, November 17th. 7:00 AM:**

Her nails are clawed and as pointed as her teeth.

She is outright gaunt, her skin nearly translucent.

Her eyes have a light in them. But it isn't human. It is cosmic. Like stars in a night sky. But it isn't beautiful. It is haunting. Downright terrifying as though the world's horrors could be seen within their pits.

She doesn't know how people could look her in the eyes.

**Wednesday, November 17th. 8:00 AM:**

TyLee holds her as she weeps on the bathroom floor.

She is crying black.

"What's happening to me, TyLee?"

**Wednesday, November 17th. 8:26 AM:**

The look on TyLee's face says that the only problem she can see is that her friend is on the floor in a hysteric fit.

Why couldn't she see what Azula was?

**Wednesday, November 17th. 12:41 PM:**

She is back in the padded room.

**Wednesday, November 17th. 1:15 PM:**

They tell her that she has had another break.

She looks at her clawed hands. The skin seems brittler, like it can flake away. She doesn't believe them because it has never been like this. She has only ever hallucinated people she knows.

**Wednesday, November 17th. 1:30 PM: **

She doesn't believe them because she is in pain.

**Wednesday, November 17th. 1:31 PM:**

So much pain.

**.oOo.**

**Wednesday, November 17th. 12:11 PM:**

Patient admitted.

**Wednesday, November 17th. 12:15 PM:**

Patient claims that she is not normal.

**Wednesday, November 17th. 12:16 PM:**

Patient says that she looks different. That it started with her eyes.

**Wednesday, November 17th. 12:18 PM:**

Patient insists that she isn't human anymore.

**Wednesday, November 17th. 12:23 PM:**

Patient begins clawing at her eyes, screaming that they are evil. That she wants them gone. She has to get rid of them. Patient rambles that she should pry her teeth out too.

**Wednesday, November 17th. 12:31 PM:**

Patient is successfully restrained. Her scratches are tended to.

**Wednesday, November 17th. 12:41 PM:**

Patient is in solitary confinement. She continues to mumble about how she looks, "not right, just not right."

**Thursday, November 18th. 9:00 AM:**

Patient is woken and given breakfast.

**Thursday, November 18th. 9:30 AM:**

Patient talks with Dr. Khonim. She asks him if he can see it. She begs him to tell her that he has noticed too.

Dr. Khonim says that she looks like she always has.

**Thursday, November 18th. 9:36 AM:**

Dr. Khonim holds up a mirror and a portrait of her.

Patient insists that the images are vastly different.

Dr. Khonim exchanges a look with Chief Physician, Dr. Zhao-Yim. Zhao-Yim motions for Dr. Khonim to leave at once.

**Thursday, November 18th. 9:40 AM:**

Patient keeps staring at hands.

**Thursday, November 18th. 9:45 AM:**

Patient covers her face.

**Thursday, November 18th. 9:50 AM:**

Patient begins displaying signs of extreme distress.

She claws at her hair, ripping clumps out.

**Thursday, November 18th. 9:56 AM:**

Patient begins to cry.

**Thursday, November 18th. 10:01 AM:**

Patient pulls her hands away trembling. Strands of hair dangle from her shaking fingers.

Patient asks, "why?" and "what's happening to me?"

**Thursday, November 18th. 10:04 AM:**

Patient asks if Dr. Zhao- Yim if she looks wrong to her.

Dr. Zhao-Yim smirks and says, "yes."

Patient asks, "can you help me?"

Dr. Zhao-Yim says, "I can."

Patient asks, "will you?"

Dr. Zhao-Yim's smile grows impossibly wide, "I am helping."

**.oOo.**

**Some Months Prior**

**Monday, August 2nd. 9:00 AM:**

Patient is woken up for breakfast.

**Monday, August 2nd. 9:30 AM:**

Patient is taken to therapy with Dr. Zhao-Yim. She responds well. She talks more openly. Dr. Zhao-Yim tells her that she is almost ready for release.

**Monday, August 2nd. 10:00 AM:**

Patient's mood seems elevated.

**Monday, August 2nd. 11:00 AM:**

Accompanied by Dr. Zhao-Yim, patient is taken to the jungle for recreation time and sound therapy.

Notes: Patient is comforted by the sounds of fire crackling and lava bubbling. Trips to the volcano have been approved by Dr. Zhao-Yim so long as she is there to monitor the princess.

**Monday, August 2nd. 11:30 AM:**

Dr. Zhao-Yim leaves the patient with Dr. Shin for a moment. Dr. Zhao-Yim dresses herself in a gas mask and a suit.

**Monday, August 2nd. 12:30 AM:**

Patient and Zhao-Yim arrive at the volcano top.

**Monday, August 2nd. 3:00 PM: Exposure Time.**

Patient expresses extreme discomfort.

**Monday, August 2nd. 3:12 PM:**

Dr. Zhao-Yim holds the princess closer to the fumes.

**Monday, August 2nd. 3:12 PM:**

Patient screams.

She says that there is something wrong.

**Monday, August 2nd. 3:16 PM:**

Dr. Zhao-Yim continues to hold her, insisting that "this is for the best."

Patient cries softly.

**Monday, August 2nd. 3:19 PM:**

Dr. Zhao-Yim pulls her away from the volcano's edge.

The patient's mouth is bleeding, her eyes are red.

**Monday, August 2nd. 3:20 PM:**

Her body goes limp.

Dr. Zhao-Yim says that she will be better very soon.


End file.
